White Horizontal Lines on Video - Hi8 from Sony TR716

[Vid Converter]

I am looking to troubleshoot the playback quality of hi8 family home videos for copying to DVD. I believe the problem could be with the camcorder, a 1999 Sony TR716, since random thin horizontal white lines appear in the camcorder viewer during playback when it is not hooked to anything else (as well as on the TV screen when it is hooked up to a DVD player). Furthermore, the most recently recorded videos appear to be more compromised (they have more of the random horizontal white lines) than the earliest videos. However, the very first video that was recorded is having issues.

The only thing I have tried so far was playing a dry cleaning tape for a couple 10-second periods though this did not seem to help. I don’t currently have access to another hi8 video player to determine whether the compromise is due to the camcorder or the tapes (or a combination of the two). I would like to know which is the problem and a good way to eventually end up with DVD footage that is not compromised by the horizontal white lines.

The image below contains several of the thin horizontal lines. They are not so salient in a still shot but are very distracting on video.

[smrpix]

Those are dropouts, places where the data from the image is missing. Some of it may be due to dirty heads on the playback device, some of it may be due to oxide shedding from the tape.

Better Hi8 players include dropout compensation circuitry which masks the lines with surrounding material. Most Video8 players, which play Hi8 tapes do a decent job.

Ultimately you are dealing with the limitations of a mechanical analog technology which is subject to wear and tear. The problem is almost certainly the tapes. If the later tapes have more dropouts it may be because they were reused more often or the camera was dirtier.

[jagabo]

If they don't appear at the same place each time you play the tape it may be a grounding problem inside the camcorder. That can be alleviated by cleaning the leaf spring that grounds the flying head mechanism.